Ridgewood NJ, How Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta’s email got hacked, is a lesson for all of us and some ideas on how to not let it happen to you. It wasn’t technical,amazingly Podesta had an insecure gmail account .There wasn’t a big security breach on Google’s servers, someone simply tricked Podesta into giving them his password.
According to WikiLeaks on March 19, Podesta received an email from “no-reply@accounts.googlemail.com” — a user falsely posing as Google, notifying Podesta that his password had been compromised by someone in Ukraine. The email provided a bit.ly link to change the password.
Podesta forwarded the email to his chief of staff, who then passed along the email to the campaign’s IT team. This is where things go so painfully wrong: The campaign’s IT team incorrectly identified the email phishing for Podesta’s password as legitimate, instructing him to change his password; ouch no 007 needed.
The Ridgewood blog receives about 5 of these a day, second most to all the “the Prince of Nigeria ” emails looking for account numbers .
Once again the Ridgewood Police are reporting identity fraud on the crime blotter. On October 25 the Ridgewood Police reported that an Emmett Road resident reported a fraud in the past. The resident reported he received a notice from Verizon stating two new phone numbers had been added to his Verizon account. Verizon reported the additional phone lines were added at a Best Buy store in Clarksville, Indiana on October 17. The resident reported he contacted Verizon and the phone lines were canceled. The Verizon customer information could have been phished ,like Podesta or perhaps something even more basic like mail was stolen .
It pays to be extra cautious when responding to emails asking for information or verifying information .
